Every-day Science: Volume VII. The Conquest of Time and Space

w of the great general underlying principles upon which these numerous inventions are based have been discovered upon this side of the Atlantic. American inventors have simply excelled in applying

merican citizens, have done their work in America, being attra

s, and running along Fourth Avenue, had rails made of straps of iron laid on stone ties. On this primitive line an omnibus horse-car, called the John Mason, was operated. This car was built on the lines of the early railway carriages, having three compartments,

me time capitalists were wary of investing their money for the construction of other lines. Twenty years later, however, a somewhat similar road, consider

loads could be hauled with the same expenditure of horse-power, regardless of weather conditions. The contrast in t

dred lines had been built. Between 1870 and 1890 this number had been increased to over seven hund

E SY

horoughfares of the larger cities. It was practically impossible to eliminate their smoke; and their puffing and wheezing, which frightened horses, caused numerous accidents. But even if these defects could be corrected, the locomotive was known to be an expensive form of motive power, when applied to a single short car, carrying at most only a few passengers and mak

ely successful, and was imitated almost immediately in most of the larger cities of the United States, and in some European cities. Within a decade the number of cable railways ins

States Patent Office. But by 1890 electric traction had become practical, and the issuing of patents for cable lines ceased as abruptly as it had begun. Before the close of the century practically every important cable line

F-CONTAIN

, just as in the case of the steam locomotive. As early as 1835 Thomas Davenport, a blacksmith of Brandon, Vermont, constructed such a motor operated by cells, and built a small circular railway i

ctro-magnetic locomotive, which drew a little car, and carried passengers, on a track a foot and a half wide. The

n circuit for the current. Doctor Colton, once a famous dentist in New York City, and noted for his early application of laughing-gas in that work, was associated with Mr. Lilly in the construction and operation of a small model locomotive which ran around a circular track. The rails were insulated from each other, each connecting with one pole of the battery. The current from the battery was taken up by the wheels, whence it passed to the magnets, upon whose alternating attraction and repulsion motion depended; then it returned to the other rail, connected the other pole o

e development of electric engines or motors, in which the reciprocating action of a system of magnets and solenoids or armatures was applied by crank-shafts to driving a fly-wheel, to which rotary motion was thus imparted. This reciprocal motion, as in steam-engines, was one of t

lement a platinum plate eleven inches square, dipped in the acid. Bladensburg, a distance of about five and one-quarter miles, was reached in thirty-nine minutes, and a maximum speed of nineteen miles an hour was attained; the entire trip to and from Bladensburg occupied one hour and fifty-eight minutes. But many disasters happened to the batteries. Some of the cells cracked wide open, and

. Field, paved the way by numerous experiments and discoveries. It was not until about 1880, however, that the idea of using a third rail for transmitting the current was conceived. Hitherto, most of the inventors had attempted to use one rail as a receiving p

ELECTRIC

stipulated that the inventor was to construct an electric railway at least two miles and a half in length, which was to be equipped with two locomotives and three cars, one locomotive for freight and one for passengers, the passenger locomotive to have a ca

s method was soon abandoned, as the pulleys slipped a great deal before the locomotive actually started. A system of belts which was substituted proved more satisfactory. The current was conveyed to the motor through the track, and was

was every prospect that in a few months a practical and economical electric railway would be an accomplished fact. Then came the financial cra

ck, something like a third of a mile in length, was laid, and on this an electric locomotive named The Judge hauled a single car which carried over twenty-six thousand passengers in the month of June. In the autumn of the same year, The Judge was used for hauling passengers on a track at the Louisville Exposition. It was capable of attaining a speed of twelve miles an hour, and its average

ILS AND

and in November, 1883, constructed what was known as the Saratoga and Mount MacGregor Railroad. This railroad was twelve miles in length and included many steep grades. The locomotive, which hauled a regular passenger-car, received the current from a central rail. The year following Mr.

ce of about two miles and reached an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet above the city of Baltimore. This road was put in

an Depoele. The projector, Mr. Daft, also built several other lines in different parts of the country, constantly improving upon his earlier efforts, sometimes using two overhead trolley wires, with two trolley contacts, thus doing

ng an overhead-trolley system somewhat similar to Daft's. By 1885, he had made sufficient progress to construct a line one mile long for carrying passengers from the railway station to the Annual Exhibition grounds at Toronto, Canada. On a single track he operated three cars and a motor, carrying an average of ten thousand passengers daily,

equipped with motors placed under the cars instead of above them, thus saving valuable seating-space. In place of the underrunning trolley and pole, however, the current was taken from the overhead wire by means of

eriod of struggle and a series of disheartening disasters, Mr. Sprague and his associates opened an electric line for the Union Passenger Railway of Richmond, Va., which "forms a landmark in the history of this industrial development." Over a line of road with grades at that time considered impossible, thirty cars were put into use at the same time, the contract for the e

ficulties that had to be solved in perfecting this apparently simple piece of apparatus is shown by the statement of Mr. Sprague that "probab

of a Kansas City car-line. On this line an overhead wire was used, the travelling carriage taking the current from the wire being known a

axle, by an extension or solid bearing attached directly to the motor. This plan of constructing the motor, together with numerous other improvements, principally in the direction of lightness, simplicity, and adaptability, soon superseded all pre-existing methods of construction. Thus Van Depoele's method of taking the current

-BATTER

ors persistent in their attempts at producing practical cars of this type. Such battery cars would not require the dangerous, expensive, and cumbrous system of overhead wires, or the more sightly but also more expensive system of conduits. With such a system of cars the elaborate mains and feeders for brin

ng like a dozen storage-battery cars were put in operation for a considerable time, and later, improved modifications of these cars were operated in Philadelphia under the direction of Mr. Anthony Rackenzaun, of Vienna. But despite the apparent simplicity of the storage-battery idea, innume

r creation of Thomas A. Edison, who had been striving for years to solve the storage-battery problem. This car, which had been tested on the Orange, New Jersey, street-car line

ison some nine years to perfect. In an imperfect form this battery was given a trial in 1903, and much was expected of it because it was not only

d no bad effects from over-charging or from being rapidly discharged, but it was found that the graphite soon became oxidized and interfered with the working of the battery. This defect was corrected by substituting chemically pure nickel for th

ly invented, however, which made the tubes economically by using spirally wound ribbons of metal, the edges being fastened together during the coiling process. By the use of these tubes the battery was so far perfected that it was given extensive trials in 1908 on electric vehicles; and a

over sixty-six miles, but this by no means exhausted the capacity of the batteries; and it is estimated that it could easily have run at least one-quarter farther without re-charging. The surprising feature of these tests was the low cost of running. The total cost of electri

ead wires erected and maintained makes the initial cost of installing the line far less than by any other system. The reduction in the cost of m

ry car lies in the fact that, after testing his car for three weeks in actual traffic, the

AIL S

nt both in construction of the roadbed and the operating of trains. It is almost impossible to lay and maintain the rails in exact parallels, and even more difficult to keep each rail at the proper height at all points. Both these factors enter very largely into

cost of construction of a single-rail track must obviously be less than for a double-rail track, and the power necessary to operate cars over such a track far less. But until the invention of the gyrocar (which is referred to at length in

elaborate and expensive steel trestle-work along every fork of the road, is not adapted to the use of long-distance roads except in thickly populated

t structures. It is the cost of these frames, however, that practically offsets the low cost of road-bed construction, so that, everything considered, the mere matter of initial cost has no very great advantage over the ordinary double-rail road. But the cost of operating is considerably less than the older type,

istance of 1,250 feet. There are two sets of these cables, each carrying a car so arranged as to work in alternate directions simultaneously, this counter-balancing effecting a great saving in power. The power-plant is located at the upper end of the ascent, and cons

c. Similar less pretentious roads have been in use for freight transportation for several years. But the success of this road means the building of